//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: The Rogue Knight- Part 2 
// Story: What does a Hero Truly Need? Vol. 1: A New Age of Heroes 
// by zelkova48 
//------------------------------//


What does a Hero Truly Need?



By: Zelkova48



Chapter 10: The Rogue Knight- Part 2






His vision was blurry, the whole world before him was but an abstract painting of dark earth tones and bright red hues. He was being dragged, he could hear and feel two guards pulling his semi-conscious self towards who knows where. The soft soil beneath his body felt warm and soggy, close to mud but not as sticky yet. 

The air the permeated from the area was dry and stagnant, you couldn't breathe properly without feeling some dust being sucked into your lungs. But he remained resilient, he was down but most certainly not out. He clutched onto his sword with a death grip when he felt the guards attempt to yank it off of him.

He remained steadfast. Even in his weakened state, the guards could not take his sword from him. After a few minutes of trying and failing, the guards gave up and instead opted to throw him into a small room. It was a cell. Even from behind his blurry vision, he could see smudged black lines in parallel order that represented the bars that kept him in. 

With a loud clicking noise followed by the sound of hacking and subsquent spatter on his helmet, the guards finally left him to his own devices. He would be undisturbed for a while, and that was a great time to take a well deserved nap.

After all, his day was going so well until it took an unexpected turn for the worst. Being sucked into a black hole and sent to the skies was not his idea of a good day. Crashing directly into some building and getting blasted by two magical bitches only added fuel to the fire that was his horrible day. 

How was he at fault? Sure, he held his sword to one of the women but he let go when she told him to. He did as she said and all he did was argue back at her. Apparently, doing so warranted a series concussive blast to the chest by the two powerful magic users and their maelstrom of angry guards.

In his defense, he thought as his mind began to drift, they struck the first blow. All he did was angrily shout at them, but the opinion could go either way. All he cared now was that it was over, for the time being at least. 

The room was nice and quiet, the dirt floor felt rather comfy as a matter of fact, and the soft warm glow of what he assumed to be torches on the walls put his mind at ease. He was just going to lie down and just... go to sleep.


Yes, that sounded like a good idea.






"Wake up..." A raspy voice spoke to him in the darkness, to which he shrugged in return. The voice did not stop, it started to poke him on his side.

"Come now, wake up friend..." The voice poked him again. 

He conceded, stirring on the ground as he proceeded to stand up. He lost his balance but quickly adjusted when he stabilized himself on all fours. Hmm, strange. Why did this feel so... natural? He shook his head to clear his vision, what he saw resting before him on the cell's bunk was a peculiar sight. 

It was a gray anthropomorphic coyote wearing a set of cracked goggles with a patched up blue vest and a worn scarf. As he looked at the dog, it smiled back at him as he rested his cheek on his paw.

"Well? Did you enjoy your nap, sleeping beauty?" The dog laughed. He waited for the dog to stop before chuckling himself. "So, I guess you're my new cell mate, eh? The last guy that was here got eaten by manticores, may his soul be at peace." The dog stayed quiet for a few seconds in respect for the dead. "Well, how about we do introductions then, hmm?" The dog hopped off the bed and offered him a paw in friendship. 

"My name's Jackal, I'm a Diamond Dog from southern Appleloosa." He tried to reach over and shake his new companion's paw.

"My name is Sven..." Sven then looked down at himself and saw that his hand was replaced with a hoof. Sven examined the rest of his body and saw that it had taken the shape of a moderately sized horse. "And, I am apparently a horse now." He sighed. Jackal shot him a perplexed look.

"What do you mean by that friend?" Jackal asked. Sven walked on over and picked his sword off the ground, resting it against the side of the cell wall as he turned to Jackal and sighed again.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I'm not from here, and that I don't normally look like this? Hmph, I don't even know where here is," Sven asked his cell mate as Jackal raised an eyebrow at him. He turned around and hopped back into his bunk where he began to think.

"Actually, believe it or not, I do." He playfully clamped his nose before replying. "That would explain the funny scent you've got, and it's not because that ass of a guard spat on your helmet." He took his paw off of his nose. "I'd wager you aren't even from Equestria, are you?" 

Sven tilted his head in curiosity. "Equestria? Where's that?" he asked. The question elicited a jovial bout of laughter from Jackal. After a few seconds of laughing, he smiled once again at his new cell mate.

"You really are something else, aren't you? Well, how about a quick history lesson then?" Jackal then went on to explain to Sven the basics of Equestria. 

It's mostly inhabited by ponies. Yup, they are Equestria's most dominant species. They are watched over by their two princesses, Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna, the latter of whom just came back only two years ago. And that's about as far as Jackal's knowledge went.  

"That's all you should know friend. Being a diamond dog of course, I don't know much about anything else. Except for gems, I know a lot about gems." Jackal sighed. Sven walked over to the bars and took a quick look around, he was in only one of what he guessed was a few hundred cells. Sven needed to know.

"While we are on the subject of location, where are we exactly?" Jackal perked up at the thought and scrambled out of the bunk, dashing right over to Sven. He reached his arm out of the bars and started pointing around.

"Now, that is one question I can answer." He cleared his throat. "Welcome to glorious Gladius Prison! Your new home from now, to forever!" He dramatically waved his paw around to express the severity of their fate. "Home to some of the most dangerous criminals in all of Equestria. All of us here have done something that possibly involved either threatening all of Equestria or wronging their omnipotent rulers." His smile faded to a frown when he finished.

"Long story short, this place is a awful shit hole where criminals stay to rot for the rest of their lives, or if they get eaten by the manticores, whichever comes first." He sighed deeply and stared at the ground. "I miss my clan... I miss my family... the pups have probably already discovered their first gem by now..." 

Sven empathized with his new friend, he too lost his family. He did his best to hold the emotions back, managing to reach over and give Jackal an assuring pat on the back.

"I understand your pain, Jackal. I lost my mother and father at a young age." Jackal appreciated the kind gesture and smiled back at him.

"Thank you, Sven. Where are they now? Your parents, I mean?" Jackal was curious. Underneath his helmet, Sven felt bitter at remembering his parents fate. His father was executed for violating the very code he adhered to, and his mother was shunned by her own wild race, the Meranths. 

He could still remember his past life with lucid details. From his mother's lingering death, to his formative years as a young knight in training, and lastly, the day he destroyed the order of the Vigil Knights. The very order that his father was once a proud member of, and the order that declared his existence an abomination. 

During his long and treacherous journey, he learned that honor did not lie in any social order, but only within himself. And it is with this strength of belief that he became the man (pony) he is today. Still a knight, yes... but a Rogue Knight.

"They're... they're gone." Jackal's expression saddened. He felt bad for unearthing such a painful memory.

"I'm sorry, Sven. I don't know if it means anything coming from me but... you have my deepest condolences." Sven shook out of his funk, this was no time to sulk.

"It's quite alright, Jackal. I've long since accepted their loss," he lied. In an attempt to stop the memory from resurfacing again, he decided to change the subject "So, why are you here anyway. What did you do to deserve such a fate?" 

Jackal scurried back to his bunk and began to recollect the events that got him sent to Gladius prison. His voice cracked slightly when he began to speak. He didn't want to talk about it, but since his friend has been so nice to him, he might as well tell his story.

"Ah, lets see. How did I end up here again? Oh yes, that's right. I attacked Princess Celestia's personal sky carriage," he mumbled. "Other than that, it's a long story. Do you still wanna hear it?" Sven nodded and began to listen attentively. Jackal shrugged and began telling the tale of his life and his eventual loss.

"It was around three years ago. I was the patriarch of my small clan of diamond dogs near the southern end of Equestria. It was a simple life for us. Dig, find gems, enjoy time with our family. We lived undisturbed for quite some time... *sigh* then the ponies came." His expression darkened at the memory.

"They wanted to build a new settlement where we lived, called it Appleloosa if I remember correctly. They wanted us off the land, told us that it was pony territory, that we were nothing more than a group of savage invaders. I tried to reason with them diplomatically, but they refused any attempts at a peaceful coexistence. They didn't want to see hide nor hair of us." He chuckled. "I remembered that they tried to remove us with ballistic apple pies. Heh, we ate well that week" 

"We remained resolute however, we didn't move an inch until we reached a consensus. Apparently our civil disobedience only angered the ponies. Before we knew it, they had the royal guards descended upon us and plucked from our homes like unripe fruit." Tears began to well up at the corner of Jackal's eyes. "We fled from the guards and found refuge with our neighboring cousins by the mountains." His voice cracked, he looked like he was ready to collapse on his knees and weep any time now.

"I was furious, enraged! How could they just treat us like that?! I didn't care for the reason anymore, I just wanted some kind of vengeance. When I heard that the town was planning some kind of celebration for clearing us out, I came up with a plan. Me and a few others were going to hijack some of their supply caravans just to spite them." Jackal cracked a weak grin that betrayed his sadness. "You should've seen the look on the pony's faces when they found out there was no party at all."

"We later caught word of a special caravan that was heading to the town. We'd figure that if we hijacked this one, there would be nothing left to celebrate at all." The tears began to flow freely now. 

"The caravan was special alright, I'm sure you must've figured it out by now, it was Princess Celestia's personal sky carriage. When we got caught, I begged for her to leave my kin, I took responsibility for the whole thing. Before I knew it, I was dragged off to Canterlot where I partook in an incredibly biased trial which I lost the moment I set foot in the courtroom." Jackal wiped the tears off his face and regained his composure. 

"Anyway, I've been stuck at Gladius prison ever since. At least my kin's alright, that's all that matters to me. Who know's what would've happened to them if I hadn't given myself up. I sometimes have nightmares where the guards found them and... I really don't want to talk about that." Jackal curled up on his bunk as Sven absorb all the information.

"It's alright, you can keep that one to yourself." He chuckled. "You know, you sound very intelligent for a gem finding dog. Personally, I think the ponies misjudged you and your kind," he complimented. Jackal smiled as he reached underneath his pillow and pulled out a worn book.

"Thank you, but it wasn't always that way. Being stuck in prison can get pretty boring, so I decided to pass the time by educating myself. For a prison filled with the worst scum in Equestria, they have quite the selection of novels and stories here." Jackal placed the book back underneath his pillow. 

"So, how did you end up here? I've told you my story, what about yours?" Jackal asked. Sven recalled his own memory at what happened earlier that day. 

"I... uh, I think I may have gotten into a fight with those princesses you mentioned earlier..." Jackal's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at the mention of Sven's audacious crime.

"You're telling that you're the assassin that put the beat down on the princesses and the guards earlier today?! No digging way, you must've been crazy strong to go hoof to hoof with the most powerful beings in all Equestria without getting fried or sent to the moon." He started to applaud Sven. "Congratulations on becoming one of the most dangerous threats in Equestria, Sven!" Sven rolled his eyes from behind his helmet.

"Well, that's just great. I've gone from the Rogue Knight to the Rogue Assassin. I swear that title fits Rikimaru better than me..." As soon as Sven mentioned Rikimaru, something clicked inside of his head, something he had completely forgotten about up until now. 

"Gah! I still have to find my friends! I can't stay here!" Sven turned to the bars and attempted to break them apart with his sword. A few swings from his massive sword shattered the bars right off of the ground that housed them. He was about to make his escape but was taken by surprise when the bars reformed the moment he broke them off.

"I had a feeling you might try that. Don't waste your strength Sven, this prison is magically housed. Unless you know some powerful sorcerer or magician or something, there is no escape for the likes of us," Jackal deadpanned. 

"Do you know how many have attempted to escape over the last few hundred years? A couple hundred. Do you know how have actually succeeded? None." Sven's mood deflated, he couldn't be stuck here. He needed to find his friends and a way back home.

"*Sigh* I do know a grand magus, the only problem is that I have no idea where he is right now. I can only hope that he's searching for me." Sven put his sword back against the wall and stared the gates. "What do I do now?" he asked Jackal.

"Hmm... Might as well go to sleep I guess. It's close to evening so that means no more food and no socializing with the other inmates. Just go to sleep and conserve your energy. Trust me on this, you're going to need it for the upcoming fight." Sven looked at Jackal with a perplexed look underneath his helmet. 

"Fight? What fight?" He was interested in the fight, but he didn't know why he had to fight to begin with. Jackal pulled up his sheets, fluffed his pillow and turned to Sven. 

"Because we're such dangerous criminals, we're subjugated to a different kind of punishment. Instead of spending time here, thinking about our actions and seeking penitence, we get fed to the manticores. For the record, that is not a metaphor. Every month or so, the inmates are thrown into Gladius colosseum and forced to fight for their lives against the beasts." Jackal shook and head and laid his head on the pillow. 

"It's the prison's method of serving justice and keeping the prisoner count low." He pulled the blanket over his face and closed his eyes.

"Just go to sleep, you'll thank me later..." just as he finished, he began to lightly snore as he drifted away into a deep sleep. 

As much as Sven hated being stuck in a prison, he really had no other options. With enough force he could split the prison wide open and escape, even with it's magical enchantments. But that would mean he would be a fugitive on the run. He would he hunted down and thrown back to square one, he couldn't risk putting himself and his allies in danger, especially in another world. He needed the help of his friends to escape properly.

He sighed and walked over to the top bunk, another nap would do him some good. His injuries have healed up, but he could still feel some sores here and there from the various blasts he had to endure hours before. He stretch his limbs with a few pops around his neck to relax himself. After reciting a few runes from his own code, he wished his friend a good night and hopped onto the top bunk.

"Good night, Jackal. See you in the morning." Jackal just waved his paw and grumbled some incoherent acknowledgement to his new cellmate. With a quick hop up to the second bunk, he landed right atop the bed...


*Crash!*
 

Sven's sheer size and weight caused the already weak bunk bed to collapse right beneath his cell mate causing for quite the comical scene. Sven immediately rushed off his bed and helped Jackal free himself from the mattress sandwich. The two went to work on salvaging their makeshift bunk bed where they agreed to one thing.

"Uh... maybe it would be better if I slept in the bottom bunk." Sven chuckled nervously.


"Yes, that sounds like a good idea," replied Jackal in a deadpan tone.




  

Back at Canterlot castle, the princesses had managed to quell the terrified masses after word got out of the alleged assassination attempt. Normalcy returned as quickly as the panic rose. After a public address to the ponies of Canterlot, all was well again and the citizens of the fair city could sleep well again knowing that another attempt at evil had been thwarted by their rulers. 

At least that was the idea. 

It had been a wild month for the princesses. Paperwork, paperwork, the occasional threats to Equestria and even more paperwork filled up their schedules on an hourly basis. However, they digress. There is something much more important on the horizon, something that had been kept a secret for the past several months. Something that not even Discord or a rampaging rogue knight would dissuade them from.


Princess Cadence and Shining Armor's wedding day
 

It was going to be spectacular event and Twilight and her friends were going to be one of the many guests of honor. However, with recent events and another new startling discovery, they're starting to wonder if it was a good Idea to make it a public wedding at all. 

Somewhere within the walls of the castle, Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, and Princess Cadence were being runned ragged on preparations for the wedding and unsurprisingly... more paperwork. 



 

"How are injuries, Shining?" A worried Cadence hovered over her injured fiance, tending to some of his lesser wounds. 

Shining winced each and every time she applied some antiseptic to his cuts. Most of his more serious injuries had been healed completely, courtesy of Princess Celestia. But he was still riddled with some small bruises and cuts from when the assassin shattered the magical barrier. 

"You can handle it you big baby," she joked, eliciting a heartfelt smile and a quiet but pained chuckle from her fiance.

"Gah! Ooh, that feels nice..." The sting of the medication later faded into a soothing sensation as he was being patched up. After a few wraps with some bandages and a kiss from Cadence, Shining was back in business. He nuzzled his soon to be wife and stayed at her side.

"It's been quite the wild day hasn't it?" said Shining as he browsed through a series of wedding catalogues with Cadence. In actuality, he only pretended to make it look like he was browsing, this kind of thing wasn't exactly his specialty. "First, all of Equestria suffers some kind of quake. Then some whack job attacks the princesses." He sighed. "Do you think we should postpone the wedding?" 

Cadence pondered the thought. Her fiance was nearly killed by some assassin, who knows what other nasty villains would attack Canterlot again. With all the recent event, things seem far to hectic to host a wedding properly. It would be a safe bet to hold off the wedding for a few more weeks, just until things cleared over. Just as she was about to voice her opinion, both her aunts entered the room, looking positively exhausted behind their regal and gentle composure.

"That shouldn't be necessary, Cadence. We will see to it that no foul scum shall ruin your special day," Luna exclaimed with a fiery passion in her eyes. Shining respectfully saluted the princesses while Cadence gave them both a warm hug.

"How's your nose, aunt Luna?" Cadence asked. Luna rubbed her nose when she brought up the question. Even though it no longer hurt, remembering getting sent soaring through the air and into the room's back wall caused her to involuntarily shudder. It was by no means a pleasant experience.

"It's gotten better, thank you for asking..." She held her hoof to her face almost instinctively. "B-but the point remains dear Cadence, you shall have your special day as planned. Nopony, and I mean nopony is going to ruin it for you. This, we swear." Luna struck a regal pose as she finished, Celestia rolled her eyes as she walked over to the wedding plans.

"Too bad there might be one harpy that will spoil the feast, sister." Using her magic to sort through the mess of the papers that was cluttered all over the table, she retrieved one specific envelope. The envelope was a coarse black in color and lined with a sickly greenish blue color. Everypony stared at it. They knew what it was, they just didn't want to believe it.

"It's real? I thought it was just somepony's idea of a sick joke." Cadence huddled closely to shining armor while Luna's expression hardened. 

"Nonsense!" Luna stamped her hoof. "An assassination attempt is one thing, but trying to invade the capitol!? Foolishness, utter foolishness!" Luna fumed, her eyes glowing a faint white. Celestia opened up the letter and read its contents. On fine parchment and with very elegant hoofwriting, the letter stated.....






On the day of the wedding



We shall take over Canterlot






That was all it said. It was very short but straight to the point. But who would write such a thing? Who would openly proclaim a hostile takeover just like that? Whatever the reason, everypony on the room was put on edge. Shining was the first to speak up and break the silence.

"We don't have to worry about a thing," he stated. He held Cadence closer to him as a sign of his love and protection. "I am the captain of the royal guards. If there really is going to be an invasion, I will find and stop whoever's behind all this." 

He stood with his chest puffed out proudly. Somepony may have bested him today, but he won't make the same mistake twice, especially on the day of his own wedding. 

Cadence could see the fire in his eyes, the fire to protect all that he held dear. Shining smiled, thinking back to how wrong the assassin was about him. He was captain of the guards for a reason, he will see to it personally that this criminal be brought to justice. Celestia and Luna smiled as well, maybe thing just might work out after all.

"I assume that means you'll be sending out the invitations then?" just as Celestia mentioned the invitations, Shining Armor's composure deflated like a bounce house with a large hole in it. 

Gone was the righteous protector of Equestria and all its denizens, here was the flimsy Shining Armor that forgot to make the invitations for his own wedding. He bolted on over to the planning table and scrounged about, looking for anything that could be used to be crafted into a mediocre invitation. Cadence and her aunts chuckled at the frantic captain.

Cadence walked on over to him and stopped his hooves from wildly running across the table and gave him a peck on the cheek. This action alone calmed his nerves and stopped him dead in his tracks. She then smirked as she levitated out a bundle of perfectly written and crafted invitations from beneath the table.

"I'd knew you forget, so I made these in advance." Shining looked like an ass at the moment. With a nervous smile and a few coughs, he took each of the letters and had them sent to to their respective recipient. 

With all the invitations sent out, everypony went back to picking out which kind of flower would be perfect for the bouquet and how the festivities shall end. Within mere minutes, a messy letter from Twilight poofed right before Celestia which brought forth curiosity from the group. 

"Huh, this is interesting. I wonder what's on her mind." Celestia partially opened the scroll and began reading aloud. 

She stopped when she mentioned the fallen object and was quite relieved to find out that it was nothing serious, only a magical mishap. What she had a hard time believing was that it was a group of ponies falling from the sky and not some random piece of debris. This raised some questions. She continued reading until she reached the part where Twilight requested her help.

"Interesting, this would make for quite the friendship report once all is said and done. Trusting a group like that takes good judgement." Celestia smiled warmly. Shining Armor smiled as well upon hearing his sister's accomplishment.

"Yup, that's my little sister." Cadence smiled alongside him, she hadn't seen Twilight in so long. It would be wonderful to see her at the wedding.

"Hmm... apparently, this group is short one pony. Their friend is missing and Twilight has requested my help in searching for the lost pony." Celestia stopped and pondered deeply at her choice. "We have hundred of guards stationed all over Equestria, perhaps they can do a sweep of land. I'm sure he will be found in no time. Now if only we knew what he looked like."

Celestia continued on with the letter hoping to find some sort of clue to the pony's appearance. Thankfully there was a description near the end of the letter about the pony.

"Okay, lets see. From what Twilight says, he is a very big stallion, wears blue with pieces of... armor... and has an oblong helmet..." 

She let go of the letter and let it fall to the ground, the smile on her face disappeared and a scowl formed on her face. Everypony in the room was speechless, the assassin that they faced earlier today fit the description all too well. Fear the only emotion that everypony felt at the moment, Twilight and her friends were with a group dangerous conspirators. They feared for their safety.

"Perhaps my student still has a lesson to learn about better judgement." Celestia hastily pulled out some parchment and began writing two letters. One about the wedding plans, and another to give the criminals a sense of false security. With a simple signature, she sent away the letters.  

"So, these conspirators were hoping to use us to search for their friend hmm? Too bad their plan failed miserably. We have their ally, and we know their game," Luna assumed. "I guess they didn't count on Twilight alerting us with a mock letter." Luna was genuinely impressed at Twilight using her wits, she can see why her sister chose her to be her personal student. Luna's reasoning also explained why the letter looked so messy, she clearly rushed it out of fear... right?

"I'll have to commend her for that later, but for now, we must worry about catching the assassin's cohorts." Celestia looked over at Shining Armor and Cadence who both looked very worried. "Do not fear you two, this will all be over by tomorrow. I can promise you that there will be no other problems." Her words did little to calm Shining's nerves. Instead, he grew furious.

"Grr... It's just one thing after another isn't it. They have my sister and this won't stand. The last thing they'll ever see will be the rusty bars of Gladius prison!" Right now, Shining just wanted to lock away all of those ponies and throw away the key. Both Celestia and Luna found his willingness to serve Equestria one of his most appealing qualities, they both see why Cadence fell for him. He was the prime example of the model stallion and an exemplary member of the royal guards. 

"I'm glad to see you're ready for this captain. Because you're going to catch them tomorrow." Shining Armor only smiled knowing that he will able to lock up the cohorts so soon.

"Yes, ma'am!" Shining Armor saluted the princesses again. "Should I bring the elite guards your majesty?"

"That would be favorable captain, we've seen what the assassin was capable of. We don't want to be caught unprepared now do we?" Luna suggested. She then commanded an order.


"Bring them to us when you're done, I would like to have a word with them"







Chapter 10 end